Looking for my first 3d printer (Page 3 of 3)

I tried to print the 2d cube, but I don't think I did it right because it printed in 4 passes. Do I need to change the layer height in slic3r to .4 mm also?

<edit>  I'm trying to follow along here:  https://solidoodletips.wordpress.com/20 … flow-rate/

A couple of things worth noting...
You mentioned that you set your multiplier to achieve .42mm wall thickness.  It looks like (from plastic scribbler site) that you have a .40 nozzle and there for should be looking for a wall thickness of .48.  I am only mentioning this as it would lead me to believe (Since your prints are getting better) that perhaps reducing it is masking some other issues.

So... The first issue I see in those prints is backlash or perhaps some wobble in the extruder assembly.  Wobble is usually rather simple to remedy.  I am not familiar with your particular printer so I can't point you in a particular direction.  Belts are easy enough to tighten so maybe that's part of the problem.
It also appears that you may not have random start points selected in your Slic3r profile.

Previously you had mentioned layer heights not being set to round numbers such as .3  You may want to look into some calibration of your Z-axis.  Same as you did for E:  just call for a certain amount of travel and measure then adjust in EEPROM.
Often times an odd layer height number is derived based on the number of steps from your motor and the particular thread pitch of the Z-axis as a stepper motor can not make a partial step it will round to the closest step.  With short prints this will have little to no effect but with taller prints can create a layer separation issue every so many layers.
Does that make sense?

I have put everything back to the stock settings and leveled the bed and adjusted the z axis again.  The print head appears level with the bed and wth a spirit level, the bed is level in x and y as is the print head.  I don't see anything loose.  The belts seem tight, the screw drives on the z access look smooth.   Test prints appear to have the correct wall thicknesses.

I probably don't know what to look for.  The point .2mm prints look sloppy in the areas where the layers start and stop.  The .1mm prints are sloppy on the bottom and pretty much perfect on the top.  Is that a clue?

hosting image

I'm not sure I understand the question. Are you asking for the gap between from the top of one thread to the next thread?  It looks like 2mm.

For moisture, do you put the spool in the oven or something?  I'm not sure of the procedure.  Here's a picture of the first layer where the first layer is set to .2mm.  There seems to be an error in the upper left corner where abs was laid down diagonally where there shouldn't have been printing.  There also appears to be an error on the bottom right. 

Retraction problems?  Heat problem?  (or completely normal) I printed at 240, anything higher and the ABS oozes out even when nothing is printing.

image uploading site

Looks like moisture is in the filament to me too.  Instructions using an oven can be found on the web to bake the moisture out of the filament, but i've never tried it.  I would keep my flament stored in a sealed container with desiccant such as damp rid when not in use though.   I've heard of people melting the spool holders when baking the filament so be careful!     

Something else worth mentioning is to take the mean of your actual filament diameter and use that in slic3r.  Just measure the filament in several places 10-20 and take the average.  If the filament isn't consistent it maybe extruding too much plastic in areas and then going away in other areas.  That's one of the problems with cheap filament.

Hope this helps.

One more thing I wanted to mention in regards to warping.    You might find that lowering the first layer speed will create a nicer bond to the glass and decrease the warping.   Also,  a lower infill  helps decrease warp if the part doesn't need to be strong.   

There are also option in slic3r to increase brim size and skirt height which might help with warping issues too.

Hi.  The printer is great on .2 and .3mm layer heights.   There's no warping and I don't need to do anything special to get the model to stick to the bed and don't even need to print brims.  The problem is on the .1 layer height settings.  Depending on the model, the warping is horrible and I have to turn down the extrusion rate to prevent messy printing.  But at this .1 extrusion rate, the walls are printing too thin.

These were both printed at .2mm layer height and I am pleased with the way they printed.  Considering the vase was 200mm high, it shows that the printer maintained precision pretty well up the Z axis.  There is a bit of a rough spot in the center of the picture that I can't explain.

So .2 and .3 are great, perhaps .1mm is just beyond my skills or beyond the printer.

This was printed with no supports with brim.  I think I was printing at 235 (ABS).  I should be able to bring the heat level down, but the flow rate at 235 with a .95 extrusion rate seems to be working well.  IMaybe it will print at 220 or 225 with a '1' extrusion rate but my filament seems to work better at a higher temp.  I'm using hatchbox but I have a spool of SainSmart that I want to try as well.

Let me know if I can be of any help.

Soliforum is a good place to ask questions.

Thanks for the suggestions. I haven't swapped filament yet but will share my experience once I do.

Stevea3342, thank you for starting this thread. I have found it very helpful and hope to write a review of my experiences with plastic scribbler in the future.